Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Host: The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Why are there those who cause dissension in the church? What is the occasion for factions to arise in assembly of believers? What kind of spirit dominates those who would split a church? Why are they to be rebuked with such strength?

There's much teaching on this throughout the New Testament, but our immediate text suggests that those who cause divisions do so because they are pleasers of self, rather than servants of Christ.

The phrase is a vigorous one. They serve their own belly.

Host: Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio ministry, which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

The application of God's word, as taught by Dr. Barnhouse, is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago.

The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled, Dividing the Flock. The book of Acts records that Paul warned the elders of the Ephesian church that savage wolves would come in among them and would not spare the flock.

Throughout history, people have indeed arisen from within the church to sow discord, division, and spiritual deception. How can we guard ourselves against savage wolves who would prey upon the flock of God?

The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is Romans chapter 16 and verses 17 and 18. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, Dividing the Flock.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. We thank Thee for our Savior who is at Thy right hand, praying for us. And we thank Thee for the Holy Spirit who is in our hearts, praying for us.

May this double intercession within thine heart help us to realize that we can come to Thee boldly through Christ to find the supply for all our need.

Whatever that need in any listening heart in this hour, make thyself known as the full satisfaction of the need. So fix our hearts on Thee that thy love may fill us, for then we will have Thy joy and Thy peace. We ask it in the name and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is in Romans 16:17 and 18, where Paul, completing his Epistle, writes to the Romans, "I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught. Avoid them."

"For such persons do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own appetites. And by fair and flattering words, they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded."

Now, in the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul's heart and mind are filled with joy as he goes over the list of believers in Rome whom he knows or of whom he has heard.

He thinks of those who have helped him, who have labored with him, been in prison with him. And he pours out his love in greetings for them. But in the text that is now before us, Paul's joy turns to distress, sorrow, anger and warning.

News had come to him concerning the situation in Rome. There were some in the midst of this early church where no apostle had yet visited. Those who were making trouble, causing splits between believing groups.

Starting factions, sects, dissensions, difficulties, and were hindering the free flow of the gospel truth.

Now Paul realizes where such movements may lead, and so he warns the infant church at Rome to beware of these people. There have been some critics who have attempted to tear this last chapter out of the book of Romans, on the ground that Paul would not have presumed to give such a warning to a church where he had not visited.

Such an idea arises from a low view of inspiration and a failure to understand the office of the apostle. Paul loved these people. From his vantage ground at Corinth, he had met scores of Christians on their way to and from Rome and was well aware of all that was going on.

The Holy Spirit, who had inspired the first chapters of this epistle, was also inspiring the last chapter.

Now there are two words in our text which reveal the urgency of his warning. The first is *skopine* in Greek, a present infinitive, which might well be translated, "continually keep your eye on those who create dissensions."

It was a situation that needed constant watching, as it does in every generation of the church's history. The older version reads, "I beseech you." The more modern translation is, "I appeal to you."

The Greek word is a strong one, in fact, a military term. At times, "I summon you." It's found in the papyri in the phrase, "I have been called on to pay a higher freight." I've been summoned, called on.

Now, there are questions that come to our mind. What is the nature of this warning? What is the spirit in which it was given?

Now, as one who would be faithful to the true exposition of the text, I must go on record that the situation against which Paul is warning these believers is not so much against the introduction of doctrines that would deny the essentials of Christian truth, but against practices which would result in true believers being split into various factions.

I would not pass on to the teaching that is found here without sounding a word of warning, however, against those who do introduce doctrines that are positively false.

For many times there are those who teach untruths in a light way, as though real truth were of secondary importance. It should go without saying that any denial of the person and the work of Christ should be recognized immediately as positive heresy of the highest degree.

Anyone who would attempt to rob Jesus Christ of his essential deity or to claim that his death was not a ransom for our sin cannot be counted as a member of the body of Christ, even though they cry to high heaven that they want to follow the master or pay lip service to his teaching, while denying him as the Lord God Almighty.

But, recognizing the existence and danger of false doctrines that are nothing more than blind unbelief, let us go to the true meaning of this text. For what it tells us is that the church must take careful note of those whose practices divide true believers.

When Paul finally reached Rome, he found these dividers of brethren hard at work. He wrote to the Philippian church concerning these true Christians. He does not deny their salvation, who acted in this way.

He said to the Philippians, "Most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment, and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear."

"Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of partisanship, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then?"

"Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that I rejoice."

Now, in the same Epistle to the Philippians, he describes those believers who cause divisions. He says, "For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is the belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things."

Now, if we are to understand this properly, we must realize that he is talking about true believers. Men who have been born again, they live as enemies of the cross of Christ, even as all Christians do, who have not come to be crucified with Christ so that the new life might dominate.

Any believers who will not accept Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ," are enemies of the surrendered life. They want to live for self.

They are what God elsewhere calls carnal, men of the flesh, instead of men of the spirit. Their God is their belly and their end is to see all of their works burned away, suffering loss of all rewards, though they themselves will be saved, but only as through fire.

They are destroyed only in the sense that they are cast forth as branches and wither, though they are not cast forth as sons.

Now, these men who cause divisions do so by substituting what is contrary to the word of God for the simplicity that is the word of God.

Their schismatic fruit consists of offenses and difficulties which are said to be contrary or in opposition to the doctrine which they had learned. This doctrine is defined in the great lexicons as teaching as an activity, instruction, the pattern of teaching of Christianity.

It's not the Logos, the divine word, or the truth, as expressing the content of Christian teaching. It's the whole flow of love in the midst of the church, the whole oneness of the body of believers that is in view.

And the dividers, the schismatics are setting up something else alongside of it. The word contrary to in Greek is *para*. And we know it in such words as parallel, and it means alongside of. They set up divisions that are alongside of the truth.

Now these men who caused divisions did so by laying alongside the whole of Christian truth something that was not the real thing, but which had some resemblance to it.

The dictionaries tell us that alongside typhoid fever, there is paratyphoid, which resembles the former in some of its symptoms. And so, alongside the true Christian life, there was laid that para-Christianity, which had some resemblance to Christianity, but which was alien to it in spirit.

The counterfeit included not only the readily discernible doctrinal infidelity, but that which is much harder to detect, the departure in the sphere of moral conduct, and especially the departure in the field of love.

Failure to love every born again believer is a symptom of the disease that he is warning against.

The other important word is translated divisions or dissensions. And this comes from a Greek verb which means to give feelings of doubt, to make insecure.

Oh, how many Christian leaders have been guilty of this. I remember an incident that took place several years ago that will illustrate this. At a summer Bible conference, there was a book table which displayed Bibles and a hundred or so different volumes on Bible study and devotional life.

A dear old lady came up to the table and looked around for a while. Finally, she picked up a book timidly, looked at it a little and then said with a pitiful air, "Is this safe?"

I felt like saying, "What kind of a teacher has made you feel so insecure that you're afraid for your faith?" For her question really meant, "Can I read this book without thinking?"

Perhaps someone will raise the question, "But is there not a danger that such a simple soul shall be led away into false doctrine and be lost?" The answer is that if God has justified a believer, even He himself cannot unjustify such a one.

And if further question is asked, whether it might not be possible to hurt the spiritual life of such a simple soul, the answer is to be found in the words of Christ himself. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Now listen. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

Now ask yourself frankly, "Is this true or is it false?" Oh, you answer at once that it must be true because it's in the Bible. Well, that being the case, Christ himself says that it is impossible for one of his own sheep to be led away by a false shepherd.

If someone has made a profession of faith and then leaves Christ, it is certainly beyond question that the person was not saved in the first place.

We read in 1 John 2:19, "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us."

Now, this being the case, how foolish, how foolish are those of our day who trouble the simple-hearted by attempting to divide the flock.

I am convinced, oh, I am convinced that the leaders of such division are really moved by profound jealousy and an envy that cannot be concealed from men, let alone from God. Such envy and jealousy is hidden only from themselves.

These men attack by innuendo. They always speak in the subjunctive, so that if challenged in the indicative, they can take refuge in the conditional.

Oh, they have learned well from the old serpent himself. And if a man, he may call himself fundamental or anything else, but if he rises up to speak against any real work of the church on the ground that somebody might be led off into something that's a little different from what he is doing, you may be sure of the fact that he is not led of the Holy Spirit in such a criticism.

When the liberalism of the last half century began to break up, and the whole modernistic approach to Christianity was seen to be unscholarly. Were these schismatics pleased?

Did they welcome returning brethren with open arms? They created dirty words by which they might be called, such as neo-orthodox, though you can't get them to define the term. And now they're talking about neo-evangelicals. And when you ask them what these are, they shake their heads as though they were in great sorrow for someone's departure from the faith, and they whisper some slander against faithful men of God.

Usually, the sum and substance of their charge is of some guilt by association. "Oh, yes," they say, wagging their heads, "He's faithful, but we don't know where he's going."

"He attended a meeting of the Council of Churches and would you believe it?" And here their tone becomes positively scandalized, "He once touched a Bible which has translations in it that we don't like." And generally, these men wouldn't know a Greek or a Hebrew root if they found one in their garden.

You see, the flat declaration of the Holy Spirit is that these men do not serve the Lord Jesus Christ. They serve their own appetites.

God commands the faithful to avoid such men, even though they may call themselves spiritual leaders.

Gerald Cragg has a beautiful paragraph about such men. He says, "The enemies against whom Paul gives warnings are those who create dissensions and difficulties. These are the men against whom we need to be constantly on our guard."

All the New Testament writers, and certainly Paul, not least among them, regard with horror the partisan spirit which breaks up the church into warring factions.

From what Paul says elsewhere, for instance, in Galatians, we know that he regarded the destruction of unity as one of the characteristic works of the flesh.

Dissensions are the outward result of strife and jealousy. He does not identify the men whose subversive work he so much dreads. Whoever they are, he is sure that they do not serve the Lord Christ.

So much their activities proclaim. Anyone whose work breaks down the church and sows divisions among its members, cannot truly be the servant of the church's master.

Those who do not serve Christ usually end by serving themselves. The two are plainly opposites. There is something essentially selfish and irreligious in the outlook of the man who creates division in the Christian fellowship.

Since he is not seeking the well-being of all, he must be intent upon promoting his own advantage. And by an inevitable declension, his ambitions are increasingly concentrated on his lower appetites. You cannot serve God and Mammon. You cannot serve Christ and self.

Now, God commands us to avoid such Christians.

Now, note carefully the difference in our attitude toward such a troublemaker and our attitude toward an apostate. A man who denies the great central truths of the Christian faith is to be treated as an antichrist.

We can have no contact with such people except as we may have the opportunity of proclaiming truth to them. But the Christians, true Christians, who cause separations and divisions are to be treated in a different manner.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "If anyone refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man, and have nothing to do with him, so that he may be ashamed. Do not look upon him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother."

The Holy Spirit tells us that the weapons of these dividers are fair and flattering words.

Oh, beware of the man with suave and smooth speech. Especially if he backs up his talk with nothing more than a few proof texts, without taking the whole of the word of God.

Paul tells us in a strong passage that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And he concludes, "I say this in order that no one may delude you with beguiling speech."

And again to the Corinthians, Paul writes, "For we are not like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ."

Oh, what a description: peddlers of God's word. As I travel across the country by car, I listen to scores of radio preachers.

When you hear some man speaking in a pitch of voice that seems frenzied, take warning. Once, while traveling in a Southern state, I was booked to speak on a certain radio station.

My program followed that of a hillbilly ranter, who was raving away in the front of the microphone. The announcers in the radio station were cultured men, and they shook their heads in despair.

One of them said, "He came in here the other day and said, 'My mind is a blank, I'll have to yell loud today.'" I'm frequently nauseated by such works of the flesh. These are those that are called the peddlers of God's word.

Oh, it's fundamental, but it's peddling God's word and it is not of the Holy Spirit. And this same peddling may be done by men with an Oxford accent and with distinguished English. Men who have a form of godliness, but who deny the power thereof.

God says, "From such turn away." Educated or ignorant, high or low, these men are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Now, what is the overall picture in the New Testament as to how these men should be treated? Some of them may be truly saved. We are to love all men, and we are to love these men.

We are to treat them as brothers as much as possible, even though they merit rebuke. They are to be admonished, and admonished again. If they do not respond, then they are to be avoided.

Paul wrote to Titus, "As for a man who is sectarian, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful. He is self-condemned."

But always remember that we are always to have the spirit of Christ, even when it is necessary for us to rebuke those who divide the flock.

We must pray that those who are true believers shall be delivered from any way of error, and walk in the oneness of the body of Christ.

We must pray that if any unbelievers have crept in unawares, that they may be brought to the knowledge of the truth.

While we are to keep our eyes open to note those who cause divisions, we are not to go around hunting heresy.

My colleague, Ralph Kuiper, described certain Christians as self-appointed theological watchdogs, sniffing at all the saints, and barking in disappointment because they proved to be saints and not sinners. But you know, true love will never act in this way.

When we find it necessary to take issue with a brother or with an unbeliever, we must take issue on the issue and not on the person.

Always keeping in mind that we are possibly touching an unsaved soul for Christ, or that we may be bringing back a sinning brother from the error of his way, saving his soul from the chastisement of early death and covering a multitude of sins, as James tells us.

To sum it all up, keep your eyes open, your heart outgoing, your mind clear and filled with truth, and your love encompassing all men in Christ. This will keep you from being one that needs to be admonished, and will help you when it's necessary to admonish others.

But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some who doubt. Save some by snatching them out of the fire.

And our God and Father, we pray Thee to use the word that's been spoken in this hour. In Jesus name. Amen.

Host: Paul's sober warning to the Romans still applies to us today. We must be on guard against those who would sow discord, dissension and division among God's people.

We hope you have benefited from today's message entitled, Dividing the Flock. To listen to more Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online at alliancenet.org.

An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll-free, 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled, Dividing the Flock. Or simply request message number R16-3.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, When Believers Sin. Sin can rob us of our joy, breed insecurity in our spiritual lives, and hinder our fellowship with the Lord.

This free booklet will help you understand why genuine believers still struggle with sin and how to effectively and biblically deal with sin in your life. Ask for your free copy of When Believers Sin when you call or write.

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